Nicole Marquis, 42, an Ambler resident, was featured by the Philadelphia Inquirer today in an article titled “HipCityVeg founder Nicole Marquis steps down as head of the vegan restaurant mini-empire“.

According to the story, Marquis served as the CEO of the fast-casual restaurant chain HipCityVeg for 12 years, expanding with a Center City cocktail bar named Charlie Was a Sinner in 2014 and a Latin bistro named Bar Bombón in 2015. The Inquirer said she will continue as owner of Marquis & Co., the above entities’ parent company, and plans to stay on the board as well.

According to Starchefs.com, The China Study, a comprehensive nutrition survey published in 2004, inspired her to devote herself to the food industry and become vegan. After her father was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, Marquis helped him adopt a plant-based diet, showing her dad that vegan food could be both healthy and satisfying.

Before opening HipCityVeg, Marquis was the dining-room manager at Horizons, an early vegan cafe in Willow Grove, until spring 2012, the Inquirer said. During the pandemic, she helped create Save Philly Restaurants, an ad hoc group that represented almost 300 restaurants.

“Coming through the pandemic and keeping the restaurants alive and thriving, keeping the staff and the team intact, was really a challenge,” she told the Inquirer. “But in that time, I started to recognize other things that customers need in the plant-based world.”

After graduating from Temple University, she attended graduate school for performance art at the California Institute of the Arts.

HipCityVeg now has four locations in Philadelphia and one in Washington, D.C.

For more, you can check out Marquis’ Instagram page.

Photos: Instagram